A Sad Pre- Opening - Georgia May Withdraw

Tragically 21 yr. old Nodar Kumaritashvili - Luge : Georgia ,was killed in his second training run today . Georgia is considering withdrawing it's team. I couldn't find a link for some reason..but it will be everywhere any time now.

How heartbreaking. no-one should ever forget what these athletes put on the line.
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Edit : Sorry ..noticed after the fact that this was posted in the non- skating section...

What a terrible thing ..the emotional anguish the other Georgian athletes must be feeling..their friend and teammate and their own Olympic dreams gone in a flash..all the attendant grief, and the confused emotions it brings..it's all dreadful.

From a skating centric POV, I'm sending thought s of caring and strenghth to Elene.

did they have crash barriers in 2006 or 2002? just trying to compare...

have not watched the video, have seen some of the screen captures (can't go anywhere olympics online and not see it) - one of the big screens in the olympic village had it frozen with the headline "luger dies in crash" which I find horribly tacky.

In yahoo's olympic blog, I read a comment by a gentleman that the luge track design was supposed to include padded flexible fiberglass columns, but it was changed to steel a little later. The poster had insinuated that Nodar K. would have at least had a fighting chance to survive a cushioned crash rather than one straight into metal. If that is the case, I really hope the designers had a really really good reason to change the columns.

I'm trying to look back about barriers, too, but as I understand it , it was right on the last turn before the straight run to the finish..maybe not a place where the need for barriers would seem obvious ? I don't know. He was way too high in the turn..Apparently the sport itself has already decided that future courses will pull back on speed..the sport has become increasingly dangerous in the quest for faster finishes..

In a ruthless drive to increase Canada's medal count, the organizers deliberately built a course that is considered dangerous and difficult even by elite lugers, and then gave the Canadian athletes far more time and opportunity to practice on the course. And now this has gone beyond unsporting to inhuman. This taints whatever medals the Canadian athletes will win. There has been a lot of corruption and human rights violations with various Olympic games, but this stands out as one of the most disgusting things a host country has perpetrated.

I know people are (rightly) upset about this. The course is faster than the engineers felt it would be. After athletes felt it was too difficult it should have been re-engineered or moved to another track. However, these kinds of comments and conspiracy theories are highly offensive. You know nothing about The Canadian People if you think we would want athletes lives jeopardized for the sake of medals. I don't think I've read anything more offensive on Golden Skate in all my years here.

According to Sarah's and Drew's tweet: "MSNBC reports the Georgian delegation will withdraw from the Games."

so weird because I can't find it... guess we'll know in about 45 minutes when the opening ceremonies start.

Say what you will about IOC Chair/President Rogge, but I truly believe he has the games/athletes best interests at heart and that he does take this whole thing personally...

“Here you have a young athlete that lost his life in pursuing his passion,” Rogge added. “He had a dream to participate in the Olympic Games. He trained hard and he had this fatal accident. I have no words to say what we feel.”

However, these kinds of comments and conspiracy theories are highly offensive.

Still, this quote by the Canadian luge coach raises questions.

The Canadian luge team are chasing their first Olympic medal and have maximized home ice by completing hundreds of training runs [with many crashes] on the daunting 1.4km track, while sliders from other nations make do with a handful of practice runs.

It is a situation that has drawn criticism from some quarters, but Canadian luge coach Wolfgang Staudinger is making no excuses for trying to give his athletes the edge.

"There are a lot of rumors going around but from my position we would be stupid not to take advantage of home advantage and I wish we could have done a little more," he told reporters.

I don't know him, yet I feel extremely sad. What would tantamount to a great honor for him, for his family is now a great tragedy. I hope his family receives all the support they need through this difficult time.
I hope the Georgia team will participate in the game. Each individual should have an option to either opt out or participate. I don't think Nodar would want his teammate to not compete.

I know people are (rightly) upset about this. The course is faster than the engineers felt it would be. After athletes felt it was too difficult it should have been re-engineered or moved to another track. However, these kinds of comments and conspiracy theories are highly offensive. You know nothing about The Canadian People if you think we would want athletes lives jeopardized for the sake of medals. I don't think I've read anything more offensive on Golden Skate in all my years here.

I am not the one to paint all Canadians under one brush. I would think and hope that most fair-minded Canadians, or really, anybody, would be outraged by this. However, that does not mean that no Canadian would ever be involved in something like this. Really, that suggestion is just absurd and inexplicable.

The facts are what they are. Athletes of all countries, even Canadian ones, have pointed out this course is one of the fastest and most dangerous in Olympic history. The Canadian coach himself conceded that Canadian athletes were given hundred more times to practice on this unusual and challenging course, while athletes and representatives from other countries have protested this unfair advantage. This is all on record. All of these things are intentional: the course design and the extra practice time for Canadian athletes. It's a deliberate attempt to give Canadian athletes a leg up in the various races. This isn't much of a conspiracy, it's just a blatantly engineered home advantage. I would merely think this unsportsmanlike, and nothing more, if it didn't 'cause a fatal accident. This is only the second time in Olympic history that someone has died in luging, the first being the debut of the sport in the Olympics in 1964. This was entirely unnecessary and the result of circumstances created by a small group of people who happen to be Canadian.

It behooves Canadians, those who truly believe in the value of human lives, to root out and condemn those among them who have other priorities. It does not become Canadians, or anybody, to defend those people instead in the name of national solidarity. No, this whole tragedy, caused by the negligence and ruthlessness of a small group of people does not make Canadians as a whole look better. But how it is handled may yet show what most Canadians are made of, and that they are the decent, fair-minded people that most people of the world are.